


May He Take You

by FrozenHearts



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ancient History, Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Dalish Elves, F/M, Gen, God Complex, M/M, Mages, Magic, May The Dread Wolf Take You, Post-Canon, Post-Game(s), Skyhold, Solas Spoilers, Solas is Fen'Harel, Spoilers, hidden identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-03-30 23:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13962699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenHearts/pseuds/FrozenHearts
Summary: They never understood Solas, but once he left they understood even less.





	May He Take You

**Author's Note:**

> I firmly believe Solas is the Dread Wolf with the post-credit scene Bioware gave us and I wanted Morrigan to get some closure because yeah she may not have liked her mother, but Flemeth was still her mom so she would want to know, I think

The final battle was won, but the war was not over.

It was a saying Morrigan had hear many times, and she found herself mulling over it as she lazed about in Skyhold;s garden, her books open and fipped to random pages as she scrawled her notes haphazardly. Mother Giselle would sometime glare at her when she thought Morrigan couldn't see, but Morrigan learned to ignore it for the most part. Dorian, the lovely man, had warned her of Mother Giselle ever since Empress Celene's ball. She was an old bat stuck in her ways in the Chantry and it wasn't likely that her views on mages wouldn't change any time soon. Even now, she caught the old woman looking at her only to give a strained smile and walk away.

Dorian, Morrigan would say, was one of the Inquisitor's inner circle who spoke to her most. With his background in necromancy, she found he was suitable for help when it came to troubles with the arcane. As Celen's advisor in such arts, it only made sense to find others who studied similarly. Dorian was always fascinated with her transformations, muttering to himself on how to use them in bed with The Iron Bull. They'd only grown closer as peers since the battle against Corypheus, Dorian marveling about her dragon transformation and Morrigan admiring his skill with the undead and electrical spells.

They came to an agreement one day, however, that something was definitely up with Solas.

It started a week after. The Inquisitor said Solas had disappeared after Corypheus had, and that was that. Nothing found in the rubble as to his whereabouts aside from an odd ancient orb of Dalish culture.

"He was always odd around those things," Dorian said when Morrigan bought it up, "And I'll be honest, he seemed to have a total boner for the Fade."

While the joke made Morrigan laugh, she could tell Dorian was wary. According to others at Skyhold, Solas kept mostly to himself, aside from the Inquisitor and whoever else she traveled with in the group. He only ever spoke of things regarding demons, magic and the Fade, reciting ancient facts as if they were yesterday's news, speaking as if he were an old man himself. The bald elf looked no older than his early thirties to Morrigan, although she knew better than anyone that appearances could be deceiving.

She didn't know the Inquisiton as well as she probably should, but Morrigan knew the looks on everyone's faces when she brought up Solas in conversation.

Be wary, their eyes said, be careful.

Solas, it seemed, was not to be taken lightly.

\-----

The Iron Bull had only been in the party with Solas exactly once. It was a trip to the Hinterlands, himself, Dorian and the elf accompanying Lady Soap. They'd been scouring caves and climbing hills looking for Astrariums, trying to help in any way they could to prepare for Corypheus's coming. The Inquisitor had been happily discussing with Dorian a date she and Cullen had been on, Dorian in return regaling her with the wooing ways of the Tevinter Imperium. Bull assumed the Inquisitor wasn't much for fancy things, since she always dressed in a militaristic dress coat (gifted by Cassandra after the ball at the Winter Palace) but she preened at Dorian's story anyway, watching with sparkling eyes as Dorian explained something with a bit of ice magic.

Solas was wearing an ugly plaidweave outfit, courtesy of a prank from Sera. She said it was to make Solas "less elfy like Soapy" and Bull found it hilarious, to see Solas decked out head to toe in yellow plaid. The mage didn't seem to mind, though, he hadn't even been mad when he found out it was Sera's doing. He just put it on and followed Soap as she left the camp that morning. The two seemed to get along, as they were both elves and mages, but something seemed off with Solas, like he wasn't altogther here, wasn't in the moment.

He remembered it happened when they were climbing out of a cave to get to an Astrarium.

"You think you're alone," Solas said, "but you aren't."

"Excuse me?" Bull said. It was something Cole would say, he knew that much, something weird and cryptic and unsettling. Being a Spirit, Bull usually let it slide, as Cole wasn't accustomed to living being's habits. Solas, however, had no such excuse.

"You think you will go wild with your training, but you won't," Solas reiterated with a blank expression, "You have friends here."

Iron Bull remembered scoffing at that, "Qunari don't have friends."

"But you do," Solas had been insistent, "You have the Inquisitor, and your Chargers. You also have me."

Iron Bull had pretended he didn't hear Solas purposefully neglect to mention Dorian, even though everyone knew in Skyhold there was something between them. even though the man was standing right there, waiting with the Inquisitor at the top of the hill for Bull and Solas to join them. Solas had been quiet after that, not commenting on anyhing until they'd found an ancient elven orb deep in a cave, right underneath a hidden rift.

The look on Solas's face when Soap had activated it was one Iron Bull had seen before.

His eyes were full of greed. Iron Bull could still see them clearly, eerily glowing in the green light in the deep dark of the cavern. There was a crackle in the air, then, much like now. As Dorian practiced electrical spells on the bed in his room, he was reminded of Solas interacting with the orb, interacting with anything twitchy and weird. Bull wasn't a fan of magic, but he learned to appreciate what Dorian and Soap and Vivienne could do. They were careful with their talent, using it to heal and help rather than hurt.

Iron Bull wasn't entirely sure what Solas wanted to do with his own magic. Sometimes he was too afraid to ask.

\-----

As a former Templar, Cullen was not used to magic being used so freely as it had been in Skyhold. Siding with the mages had put him on edge, but after a few weeks of listening to Grand Enchanter Fiona's explanations and watching the mages practice with the Chargers and some of his own men, Cullen knew it was a good choice to have set the rebel mages free instead of conscripting them. They weren't afraid of him, and he found he wasn't afraid of them either. He took time to play chess with Dorian, even when the man would obviously cheat by trying to twist time to his advantage, he would walk on the battlements with Soap after she came back from a mission, smiling at how her eyes sparkled when she showed him a new trick with her spirit magic. Vivienne always knew what to do when his withdrawal came to be too much some days and while he didn't know Morrigan well, is Soap trusted her, so did he.

So he couldn't fathom why something was wrong about Solas. The elf claimed he was here to help, which was all fine and good, but he couldn't help but feel he had a different agenda. Like he was vying for something bigger than the end of the world.

He never interacted much with the man, but then again, no one did. He didn't bother coming to Varric's Wicked Grace sessions despite being invited numerous times, and more often than not, Solas would stay holed up in his rotunda under the library. Leliana said at the war table she could hear him muttering things under his breath, something in ancient Elvhen, although she wasn't sure where he learned it as the language was practically gone now. Even Soap didn't know how to speak it.

"Are you alright, love?" Soap broke through Cullen's thoughts, "You look like you're thinking too hard."

Cullen smirked, "Am I?"

Soap grinned, twirling one of his feather quills between her fingers. They were writing whatever reports were left unfinished, small things about herding hallas and finding lost jewelry. Awfully boring stuff, but it was a nice boring, after everything that had happened. Leaning over, she gave him a quick kiss, "Don't think too hard. We still have to help Josie with some ambassador-ish things, I think."

He laughed, letting her go. Sometimes he couldn't believe how lucky he was to have her.

And then something was forming in his gut, an ugly twisted thing that left as soon as it come.

Solas came close to having her too.

\------

Cassandra was always wary of Cole. She was also wary of magic, but found Lady Soap to be one of her best friends. So when Soap accepted Cole into the Inquisition, Cassandra did her best to do the same. Sure, she didn't like that he would pop in unannounced and air her dirty laundry out for others to hear, but he was a Spirit. A Spirit of Compassion, made to "heal the hurts" as he put it so eloquently.

As the battle with Corypheus came to an end, she found she did not mind that he was here. He was fighting the good fight, in his own strange way. She trusted him and he trusted her.

So it was odd to find Cole so wary of Solas, a man who seemed to be enraptured with all things spiritual and Fade-related. upon his arrival, Cole was friendly with him, answering whatever questions Solas had, but soon he took to hiding in the rafters of the Herald's Rest, just off from Sera's room and above where Bull and his Chargers sat at the bar. Krem had been trying to befriend Cole, but to no avail, claiming he wasn't able to "understand all this weird spirit crap like Solas."

Krem directed Cassandra to the upper level of the Herald's Rest when she asked, giving Krem a nod of thanks as she went. The stairs creaked under her feet, a solid reminder that this was real. That Skyhold was still standing, Corypheus was dead and that she would live another day.

Cole would be something, she supposed. Not really human, even though he desperately wanted to be. Tried to be in every sense of the word. 

"Easier this way, no need for pain, why would you want it?"

Cassandra gripped the railing to keep from falling down the stairs, glancijg up to see Cole at the top. His ridiculous hat shrouded his face, his chin tucked towards his neck like a child who'd been caught doing something he shouldn't.

"Old, my bones brittle, my life a thread but still thriving. She inquires but is not interested- how do I show her, I want her to understand-" Cole's voice was a whisper, rushing to get louder until Cassandra was suddenly at the top of thr stairs with him, reaching out to hesitantly wrap unsure arms around Cole's thin shoulders.

Anthony always joked that Cassandra was not much for hugs. She wondered when that had changed. 

"The Inquisitor?" Cassandra asked, even though she had a feeling she already knew.

"First Blackwall, now Cullen, not me, never me," Cole replied, his eyes glowing something fierce from their sockets, and for the first time Cassandra wondered if the Spirit of Conpassion was here, rather than a demon wearing a dead boy's face.

"Are you talking about Solas?" Cassandra clarified. Cole's lower lip trembled, the slight hunch in his shoulders more than enough to answer.

"He was friendly, but he hurt," Cole said, "I just wanted to be human, but he said it was bad. I had more purpose as a Spirit, I could help."

Cassandra frowned, but didn't say anything. She was never much for understanding Cole's ramblings, as he poked into other people's heads but something felt wrong.

"He forgot, he fled," Cole said, "They forget him, he can't have that, won't have it. He's here from the beginning and will be here to see the end, he knows he will with the artifacts and she'll finally know-"

Cassandra heaved a sigh, pulling Cole in for another hug. His shoulders shook and if he were human, Cassandra knew he would be crying.

She hated Solas for depriving Cole of his humanity. More, she thought, for tying him to a useless necklace, as he fled from the destruction and left so many innocents behind. 

**Author's Note:**

> I just really like all the mage characters Dragon Age: Inquisition gave us, and all my playthroughs have been as a mage so I wanted to explore magic stuff


End file.
